British royal Prince Harry is getting a storm of backlash for his comments in which he compared flying Apache attack helicopters in Afghanistan to playing video games.
The 28-year-old prince recently returned to Wales after spending four months on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. Newly released footage taped while the royal was in the army shows him speaking openly, casually and off-the-cuff. But his candid answers are causing much controversy.
He told the Press Association's pool report that he killed an unidentified number of insurgents in Afghanistan and that he took his enemy "out of the game" while serving in the army in the southern Helmand province. When asked if he had killed anyone while working as a co-pilot and shooter in the Apache attack helicopters, he said, "Yeah, so lots of people have. The squadron's been out here. Everyone's fired a certain amount." According the royal, there were times when he had to "take a life to save a life."
He also said he liked working as a gunner while flying in attack helicopters "because I'm one of those people that loves playing PlayStation and Xbox, so with my thumbs I like to think I'm probably quite useful -- if you ask the guys I thrash them at FIFA the whole time,"
In response, the Taliban released a statement on Monday criticizing Harry's remarks as crass and suggested that he has a "mental problem."
"This is a serious war, a historic war, resistance for us, for our people," a Taliban spokesman told Agence France-Presse, "and now this prince comes and compares this war with his games, PlayStation or whatever he calls it." But the spokesman added, "We don't take his comments very seriously, as we have all seen and heard that many foreign soldiers, occupiers who come to Afghanistan, develop some kind of mental problems on their way out."
British press have also bashed the prince for being undiplomatic.
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